Why Social Media Marketing is Not Simple

12th July 2017

Social Media Marketing is not simple any longer and here is why I changed my company name!

To many of you in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, the Social Media is Simple logo was a recognized brand. I wanted the name to include Social Media because it’s good for recognition, display, SEO, early identification, etc. Seven years ago, it seemed catchy and had alliteration and it was true to my belief that people who were well taught on the mechanics and some of the philosophy of social media would find it fairly straightforward – even simple – to add to their sales and marketing toolbox.

Learning the mechanics of creating and managing a Facebook Business Page was fairly straightforward 7 years ago. Twitter had a few more wrinkles like lists and that 140 character requirement and the retweeting and mentioning took some learning, but businesses of all types – particularly in the Cowichan Valley – were tweeting with the best of them and the whole concept of social media started to take hold.

Two key reasons why Social Media marketing is no longer simple and more and more challenging is all networks, particularly Facebook, are trying to find a way to deliver the right content into their users’ newsfeed in increasingly compressed space. Facebook just crossed the 2 billion user mark. If every personal profile has on average 200 friends, and follow 100 pages, and all of them post, how could any one newsfeed display them during any 24 hour time frame?? That is precisely why Facebook introduced algorithms which sorts which posts to put into your new feed. The decision is made based on how much interaction you have had with the user in the near past. I am very sure at this point you are saying to yourself why Social Media is Not Simple any longer.

The second driver to making Social Media less simple to follow is the introduction of the ability to enhance your content’s exposure by paying. Almost all social networks offer advertising in several forms whether straightforward ads on the pages of the network or more innovative options like boosting a post on Facebook. The preference for videos is everywhere, the ability to communicate face to face with your customers via video sharing or tell stories to your customers or your friends, is available on most networks, and standing out from the crowd – or even getting to the right crowd – is simply no longer simple.

It seemed the longer I used Social Media is Simple, the more it seemed like false advertising. To have the results you desire with your Social Media Marketing time and investment, there is real and constant learning and the adoption of new concepts that didn’t influence marketing at all less than 10 years ago.

So, see above the new logo, please. I will always try to deliver my social media learning programs in the most understandable and straightforward way possible. You can still use the usual ways to connect with me, we have simply pointed them to socialmediaisnotsimiple on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and on my profile on LinkedIn. http://www.socialmediaisnotsimple.com